Update: The closing auction bid on Monday, Dec. 18 was $50,800.
Portland Rescue Mission receives thousands of pounds of donated clothing every year, which they then redistribute to people in need. Most of that clothing is lightly used and is more about keeping warm than looking flashy. So when James Free, one of the workers sorting donations, spotted a new pair of bright gold Nike Air Jordan 3 sneakers, he took notice. It turns out those shoes are one of only four or five sneakers custom made for director Spike Lee and his friends for the 2019 Oscars.
“They’re hard to miss when they were in our donation bin,” said Erin Holcomb, director of staff ministry at Portland Rescue Mission. “I think the reason that they stood out was because they are gold, bright gold, every surface inside is bright red, like red-carpet red. So they’re pretty noticeable when you see them, but they look really cool.”
Free, who is formerly homeless himself, set the shoes aside, and they ended up on Holcomb’s desk.
“I think I am the person of miscellaneous items,” said Holcomb. “I wonder if I had been the one sorting, if I would have thought to set them aside. I’m so glad he did. But I’ll tell you in the 17 years I’ve been with Portland Rescue Mission, I don’t think we’ve ever resold something. We’ve always just given it right out because mostly it’s very well-used things that are donated.”
In this photo from the Portland Rescue Mission, James Free poses with the gold Nike Air Jordan 3 sneakers he found in a donation bin.
Portland Rescue Mission
Holcomb did some Googling and saw the shoes resembled the famous Spike Lee design, but she was sure they were fake. The shoes sat in her office, then her car, and then her laundry hamper before she was finally able to take them to a Portland store that specializes in sneaker culture. The employees at the store immediately verified the authenticity of the shoes and Holcomb reached out to the auction house Sotheby’s, which valued the shoes at more than $10,000.
“My assumption is whoever dropped them knew they were special because they are so visibly different than what you would typically drop into a donation chute. So my hope is that they just wanted to do a good deed and not get the credit,” said Holcomb. “And maybe they were willing to take the risk that they would just get used and that it would be a good pair of shoes for someone in need.”
Sotheby’s, which offered to sell the shoes at no cost to the nonprofit, is holding an auction through Monday, Dec. 18. Tinker Hatfield, the Nike designer of the gold sneakers, donated a signed box and original design files to the auction lot.
Holcomb says the money raised from the sale isn’t earmarked for anything special, but will instead just be used to fulfill the organization’s mission.
“It turns into thousands of meals that we can serve, so many services that we can provide to people in need, she said. ”It really is an important piece of a much bigger story, which is the generosity of the community here … who gives clothes all the time, shoes all the time, who contributes on a monthly basis to support the work of Portland Rescue Mission.”
You can listen to the whole conversation with Erin Holcomb on “Think Out Loud” by pressing the play arrow above.